Audinst HUD-mx1 USB DAC and Headphone Amp

Over the last couple of years, the market has been flooded with cheap DAC’s and headphone amps from Hong Kong and the far East. Sifting through them all, determining which are cheap tat and which are actually decent bargains is quite overwhelming.

This product here, hails from South Korea and aims to be a USB DAC and headphone amp in a neat little 4″ square package. Feature wise it is well thought out; dual headphone output, SPDIF pass-through (for AC3/DTS or onwards to a higher end DAC), 24bit/192kHz support, stereo line out and compatible with Windows and Mac. It sports the DAC chip of the moment, the Wolfson’s WM8740 chip.

Don’t just trust the stats on paper, the best DAC chip in the world will still sound bad within a badly implemented circuit. Thankfully, there is nothing to worry about here, as this DAC has been garnering lots of attention on all the forums and receiving numerous rave reviews. Perhaps not a giant killer, but certainly excellent considering its price at just over £100.